Boiled the chunks with butter and a little water, drained, and smashed them.

I made up a crust, used the smashed pumpkin to make the pie filling, and then baked it. Oh, I do love me some hot pumpkin pie!

All the pumpkin scraps went out to the chickens where it disappeared quite fast. I suppose technically the stem went to waste. Maybe there is a crafting opportunity there, but I will pass on that one. 🙂

13 Responses to Using the whole pumpkin

I find that I get better results if I remove the stem, cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and bake the halves on a cookie sheet, cut side down. The skin literally falls off and the pumpkin meat isn’t as wet.

Thanks for the suggestion. We haven’t had an oven for the last 3 years, so this wasn’t really an option before. Just the other day Robin and I were trying to brainstorm a list of the foods we used to cook back when we had an oven.

Maybe we can give the roasting method a try with some of the remaining pumpkin now that we have our little toaster oven.

Yum! Pie looks great. Love the roasted seeds though, they’re my faves. But boiling them first – did I understand that correctly – permits you to eat the seed and shell? Or are my neurons not firing properly tonight?

The link in the post above leads to the recipe we followed for the pumpkin seeds. I’m not sure if the boiling step makes it easier to eat the shell, but it definitely infused them with salt more consistently than trying to shake it on them afterward. We always eat pumpkin seeds whole (it’s just easier), and I liked these better than usual. They seemed less woody, but that could well be affected by the pumpkin variety too.

Oh gosh that looks good! When Scott’s grandfather was still alive, I used to raise pie pumpkins and make him mini pumpkin pies to eat when he traveled back to North Carolina. Due to food allergies, I don’t get to make them anymore because the only people in the family who can eat them would be Scott and I and we don’t need them.

Oh, that would be horrible to have a pumpkin allergy! Does that mean your family can’t eat any members of the Cucurbitaceae family? I’m not a big fan of melons, but I’d miss squash, cucumbers, zuccini, etc.